Smooth Quartz Block — Minecraft block

Overview

Minecraft classifies Smooth Quartz Block as a Nether block. Its hardness of 2 makes it a normal, unhurried block to mine. Anything below a wooden pickaxe breaks it without leaving a drop.

It drops as the same block you mined. It stacks to 64. A furnace turns Block of Quartz into it.

Its crafting uses are Smooth Quartz Slab and Smooth Quartz Stairs.

About the quartz set

How long it takes to break

Smooth Quartz Block has a hardness of 2. By hand that is 10 seconds per block; with the correct tool at netherite tier it is 0.35 seconds.

Iron takes 0.5 seconds against diamond's 0.4, so the upgrade worth making for this block is the one to iron.

The block still breaks with a weaker tool, but below wooden it yields nothing at all — the time is spent and the drop is lost, which is the single most common way players waste a vein.

Each Efficiency level adds level² + 1 to the tool's speed, so a level V tool clears this about 3.5 times faster than an unenchanted one.

* breaks the block but yields no drop
Tool	No enchantment	Efficiency III	Efficiency V
Hand *	10 s	10 s	10 s
Wooden	1.5 s	0.25 s	0.15 s
Stone	0.75 s	0.25 s	0.1 s
Iron	0.5 s	0.2 s	0.1 s
Diamond	0.4 s	0.2 s	0.1 s
Netherite	0.35 s	0.2 s	0.1 s
Golden	0.25 s	0.15 s	0.1 s

Properties

Smooth Quartz Block has a blast resistance of 6, so a nearby explosion will usually destroy it. It blocks light completely and emits no light of its own. One inventory slot holds 64, the normal full stack. A pickaxe is fastest here; any other class mines it at bare-hand speed, because the bonus only applies to the class the block is tagged for.

Transparent: No
Required tool: Wooden Pickaxe